Anyone know of a good utility for comparing files on two Windows PCs?

[Jeff]

I've got a laptop and a desktop with a bunch of folders that contain a lot of redundant content. At one time, they were identical copies, but some files have been edited on the desktop and have since been edited on the laptop.

Just wondering if anyone had run across any neat tricks for dealing with this recently.

[Yahooligan]

I haven't had this problem myself, but a quick search on Google turned up something called FolderMatch that looks promising. It's commercial software, but there is a trial version. Not sure if the trial has limitations tho.

[David]

Can you map them over the network? comparing c:\files\ with z:\ is easier than trying to find software to compare two computers over the network.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by David

Can you map them over the network? comparing c:\files\ with z:\ is easier than trying to find software to compare two computers over the network.

Yes, but I've got about 30 subfolders with more folders nested below that. I don't want to go through every folder and manually compare files if there is some easy way to do it.

[David]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Yes, but I've got about 30 subfolders with more folders nested below that. I don't want to go through every folder and manually compare files if there is some easy way to do it.

Yeah yeah, I'm just saying you don't need to specifically compare folders on different computers, you just need to compare folders.

Anyway, the only thing I can think of is BeyondCompare (Beyond Compare - The file compare, folder compare and remote directory compare utility from Scooter Software), but I haven't done too much with it, so I don't know how well it works comparing folders.

[Jeff]

Thanks for shaking the cobwebs loose, David! I've used Beyond Compare before, but usually I was comparing two versions of a file. It never occured to me that I could use it to compare entire directories.

Thanks!

[EEDOK]

if you're looking to keep the content on both computers, but only want to keep the most up to date stuff, you can look into setting up an svn repository to keep track of the files. Also has the nice side effects of being a good backup system, and an undo mechanism if you accidentally save over something.

[David]

Originally Posted by EEDOK

if you're looking to keep the content on both computers, but only want to keep the most up to date stuff, you can look into setting up an svn repository to keep track of the files. Also has the nice side effects of being a good backup system, and an undo mechanism if you accidentally save over something.

Although there is certainly merit to that... I think most people would be better off with Dropbox. Though Dropbox may or may not have the side effect of cross-deletion. SVN is great for backing up and version control, so it definitely wins in that aspect.

[detn8r]

I was just going to suggest Dropbox. It's pretty neat and damn easy.

[Hasan]

windows fc tool compares the files and you can do a bulk compare using a batch script (For loop).